


The Thought That Counts

by bibesties



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Disability, Disabilityfest, Dyscalculia, Gen, autistic pee dee, food mentions tw, steven with dyscalculia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-07 15:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4269093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibesties/pseuds/bibesties
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steven starts to realise that he struggles with some things that other people find easy.<br/>It's confusing and complicated, but luckily his family and friends are there to help him figure it out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Thought That Counts

**Author's Note:**

> I've got dyscalculia and saw that one of my friends who also had it had the idea of a Steven with dyscalculia, and I thought it was such a great idea that I'd write a fic so here we are!
> 
> Also written for disabilityfest! Check it out: http://disabilityfest.tumblr.com/
> 
> This is inspired by my own experiences with the confusing world of number and time so I hope anyone out there with dyscalculia reading this enjoys the rare representation! We rock! :-)

The clock ticked ominously on the wall, slowly counting down the seconds until the warp pad reactivated.

Steven was trying to teach Lion to play volleyball on the beach below, but it wasn’t working too well. Lion had managed to puncture three balls and Steven had gotten tangled up in the net twice. 

He was sure he was just missing something; maybe if he threw the ball higher then his feline friend would be interested in trying to catch it?

An hour later, he’d still had no success.

Lion hadn’t even chased after the ball once and had become busy making trails in the sand with his paws. 

At least he was independent and knew what he wanted to do, Steven thought with a firm nod. Sand trails were an excellent decision.

The familiar whooshing noise of the warp pad brought his attention back to his house and he scooped up the now broken net and ball, running up the hill to greet the crystal gems.

“Come on, Lion! We don’t want the gems thinking that nobody cares about their return! We’ve got to be the best greeting party ever!”  
Lion reluctantly stopped making swirls in the sand with his tail and loped after Steven.

“Hey guys!” Steven shouted into the house, dragging out his words as he ran up to the warp pad to see Pearl brushing some sort of sticky blue substance from her hair.

“Hello, Steven,” Pearl greeted him, looking disgruntled with the fact that the blue stuff was now all over her hands. “Have you been busy?”

“Kinda.” He replied, dumping the volleyball equipment by the sofa and following after Pearl as she went into the kitchen to wash her hands. “Where’s Amethyst and Garnet?”

Pearl shooed Lion from the counter before turning on the tap and ridding herself of the gooey substance. Lion flopped down onto the floor, his nose stuffed into a box of cereal.

“They’re just finishing up, Garnet is cleaning up our mess and Amethyst is supposed to be searching for any gem shards that we missed.” Pearl turned to look at Steven and her expression became a little strained as she noticed that Steven and Lion were sharing the same cereal, but she didn’t comment.

“There were lots of creatures, Steven, I’m glad you didn’t come along. I’m sorry I took so long to return, it was a bigger task than we’d thought.”

Steven shook his head, just glad to have one of the gems back in his company. He looked over at the digital clock on the microwave. “It’s only… seven ish. There’s still lots of time for us to do things!”

Pearl raised an eyebrow, glancing at the clock too. “Steven, it’s quarter past five. It says seventeen, not seven.”

Steven grinned, unpeturbed. “That means even more time to do things! C’mon, I’ve gotta show you this game I found under the stairs!” He grabbed Pearl’s hand and pulled her over to the cupboard in excitement.

-x-

“Hey Steven, want some of this?” Amethyst offered, holding out half of what looked like some sort of grilled cheese sandwich covered in sprinkles.

“Okay!”

Amethyst chuckled and shoved the whole thing into her mouth. “Too slow! Don’t worry though, we can make some more.”

She got up from the sofa and hopped up onto one of the stools by the kitchen counter, starting to pile a lot of food in between two slices of bread.

Steven laughed and got up too, almost falling over the pile of volleyball things he’d left there a couple of days before. “Hey, Amethyst, do you know anything about teaching lions how to play sports?”

Amethyst shrugged, stuffing her sandwich creation into the microwave. “Nah. I don’t think it’s Lion’s sort of thing anyway, he just does his own thing, doesn’t he?”

Steven nodded in agreement, wondering what Lion was up to at that moment. Probably napping.

“Hey, how long do you think I should heat this up for? Two minutes?” 

Steven watched as Amethyst prodded different buttons on the microwave, numbers and words flicking onto the screen. He always just guessed how long something would take or asked Pearl if she could do it for him. “Uh, maybe six? Because of all the extra food you put on top?”

“Good thinking, Steve-o!” Amethyst agreed.

Six minutes later they had an overcooked, gooey mess on their hands. And on the kitchen surfaces.

“Damn. Maybe three would’ve been better.” Amethyst mused, opting for the safer choice of some cookies instead of heating something else up. “I’m no good at working that stuff out.”

“Really?” Steven asked, climbing up onto the stool next to her and looking hopeful. “I’m not either. I don’t get all the seconds and minutes and things.”

“Nah, I just meant I don’t have time for it. I could do it if I tried but, like, what’s the point in counting things out when you can just open a packet, am I right?” Amethyst laughed and offered the boy next to her a cookie.

Steven took one and chewed it thoughtfully, a small frown on his face.

-x-

It was a few hours later and Steven was greeted with the familiar face of Peedee as he stood by the counter of Beach Citywalk Fries.

“Same as always?” Pee Dee asked, though he was already scooping up fry bits into a paper bag for his friend.

“Thanks, Pee Dee.” Steven said with a sigh, leaning his arms on the counter.

“Something up, Steven?” The other boy enquired, placing the bag of fry bits on the counter.

“Have you ever thought that something you did was something everyone did, but then realised that it was just you and it made you feel all confused?”

Pee Dee scratched his chin. “I dunno. I used to think everyone flapped their arms around when they got excited, but then I realised I didn’t know anyone who did that except me. Maybe you’ll feel better if you find a name for whatever it is?”

Steven narrowed his eyes in thought and then nodded seriously. “Thanks, that’s a good idea.”

“No problem,” Pee Dee replied, putting out his hand for the money for the fry bits. “Everything’s fifteen percent off today, so no need to pay the full amount,” 

“Uh… um…” Steven scrunched up his face and stared at the coins in his hand. He always just got the same thing every time. At Beach Citywalk Fries, at the Big Donut, at Fish Stew Pizza. 

“Ah… um… I don’t know what to do and I’m panicking I need to go home right now sorry bye!”

He grabbed his bag of fry bits, threw all of his coins at Pee Dee and ran off yelling, leaving a bewildered Pee Dee to scoop up the coins.

“Steven! You gave me even more than usual! That’s not the right price, you need to come back for your change later!”

-x-

It was the day after the Embarrassing Fry Bits Incident (as Steven had named it), and the disheartened boy was staring out of the front window of his house, resting his head on his arms as he listened to the seagulls squawking outside.

“Is everything okay, Steven?” Garnet crouched down next to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Everything is confusing.” He muttered in reply, frowning deeper.

“The Fry Boy visited earlier to give you your change back,” Garnet told him, dropping his coins onto the windowsill next to his arms. “He said you panicked because you had to pay him.”

“Numbers are weird, Garnet,” Steven complained, uncrossing his arms and rolling the coins along the windowsill.

“Here,” Garnet held out a square object to him. “This is for you.”

Steven looked over and took it, prodding at the buttons and smiling. “My own calculator! Thanks Garnet!”

Garnet smiled. “Pearl and Amethyst were both worried because they noticed you had trouble with numeracy sometimes. We hope this can help you.”

Steven reached over and hugged Garnet around her middle, feeling better already.

She patted him on the head in return. “There’s never anything wrong with being different, Steven. It’s part of what makes you who you are.”

-x-

You have one (1) new voicemail.  
Message received today at twelve fifty-three pm (12:53pm).

“Hey Steven! I got your message about the numbers thing, I’m glad the gems could help you! I did some research and, oh, wait a minute. Here we go, I think you’ve got dyscalculia, it’s like dyslexia, you know, where people have trouble with words and letters and things? But it’s with numbers instead! It’s where people struggle with things like math and the time and… oh, directions! 

“That explains why you found it hard to play rounders with the Pizza family, and why you got confused with which way to run! It’s okay though, now we can explain to people why you get confused and we can help with it, like putting up a sign with an arrow on it next time you play rounders! 

“I’ll come over tomorrow and we can work out some things, maybe Garnet can lift us up to write the numbers in words on the clock! Don’t worry about this Steven, it’s not a bad thing at all, and you’re definitely not any less cool because of it. I’ll see you tomorrow! Bye!”

Steven couldn’t stop smiling as he held his phone in his hands. There was nothing wrong with him after all. Everything was going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Instead of an ending quote you can have a fun fact: ironically, thanks to having dyscalculia, I put twelve fifty-three am (12:53am) instead of pm omg that always confuses me so much :'D


End file.
